Gratitude is not only the greatest of virtues, but the parent of all the others.
Marcus Tullius Cicero (106–43 BC) was a Roman orator, lawyer and statesman, and one of the most influential writers of Latin. Alongside his speeches he wrote philosophical treatises that carried Greek thought into Latin — among them On Friendship, written after the death of his closest friend. He was killed in the political violence following Caesar's death.
About this theme: Happiness
Few subjects have been written about so much with so little agreement. For Aristotle happiness was not a feeling but a way of living — eudaimonia, visible only when a life is viewed whole. For the Epicureans it was the absence of disturbance. For the Stoics it was a consequence of virtue and never a target. None of these is the same as being in a good mood, yet that substitution is the one most often made.
More by Cicero
More on Happiness
- The earth laughs in flowers.— Ralph Waldo Emerson
- True happiness is to enjoy the present, without anxious dependence upon the future.— Seneca
- He who knows that enough is enough will always have enough.— Lao Tzu
- Wealth consists not in having great possessions, but in having few wants.— Epictetus
- He is richest who is content with the least.— Socrates